WNBA Union Reportedly Bars Businesses From Using Viral Sophie Cunningham Pointing Photo

The WNBA union is preventing businesses from using Sophie Cunningham’s viral pointing image, as per the union’s policy. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The WNBA union is preventing businesses from using Sophie Cunningham’s pointing photo after Cunningham went viral for doing the gesture at ex-teammate DeWanna Bonner in a Fever-Mercury game last month.

The move is in accordance to the union’s longtime policy, The Ringer’s Seerat Sohi explained in a tweet.

“The WNBPA has a blanket policy to not monetize confrontation-coded moments between its members. Players, however, are free to create and/or license their own NIL with any brand,” Sohi wrote.

This means that while the league won’t profit from Cunningham’s viral point, the Fever guard can plaster it on whatever apparel she chooses, so long as she doesn’t include the WNBA or WNBPA logo.

Cunningham opened up about her trolling moment on a FIFA World Cup After Hours show with James Corden and was asked whether she might try to monetize it.

“Have you thought about where you’re going to take this next?” Corden asked her. “How do we grow the point? What could it be?”

“I didn’t even give that [pointing gesture] thought. It was just my natural—like I was a little hungry, a little sassy, that’s a bad combination for me,” Cunningham said.

Others on the show half-joked that Cunningham’s point should be the new WNBA logo. It remains unclear whether Cunningham plans to produce any merch featuring her petty point, but she does have a history of promoting herself and taking advantage of off-court financial opportunities.

Last season, Cunningham made headlines for becoming Caitlin Clark’s enforcer after Cunningham retaliated against an opposing player who appeared to pull a dirty move on Clark in a game. Since then, she’s enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity and hasn’t been afraid to capitalize on her ever-increasing marketability: She secured sponsorship deals with several businesses including Arby’s and the home security company Ring, and also signed a lucrative podcast deal in July 2025, roughly a month after her retaliation foul.

Examining the WNBA union’s policy that prohibits league from profiting off of Cunningham point

As explained above, the WNBA Players Association has a policy against creating apparel that stems from a confrontation between its members.

Cunningham and Bonner’s stand-off was very much that. In the fourth quarter of the Fever-Mercury game on June 22, Caitlin Clark fouled Bonner and the two engaged in a chippy exchange afterward that led to Clark getting a technical. Cunningham was in the thick of it and asked why Bonner didn’t get a tech as well, causing Bonner to say something along the lines of “Don’t you [expletive] point at me,” according to Cunningham, who took those words literally. Thus, the WNBA’s most viral meme was born.

While fans may be scratching their heads at why the WNBA union would choose not to profit off of such an easily marketable image, it’s in their policy not to promote “confrontation-coded” moments, presumably to foster a sense of unity around the league.

It isn’t the first time this has happened, either. Back in 2021 during Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, then-Sky star Kahleah Copper was the center of an iconic photo featuring... none other than Cunningham. Copper and Cunningham, who was playing for the Mercury at the time, got into a physical altercation by the net during which they were both tussling for the ball on the floor. Whistles blew, and Copper stood up first, towering over Cunningham as she stared down the Mercury guard.

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— Meredith Cash (@mercash22) October 19, 2021

The resulting photo, as one can imagine, quickly went viral. (Copper and the Sky went on to beat the Mercury in a 3-1 series win that marked the franchise’s first-ever title, with Copper winning Finals MVP.)

Following her run-in with Copper, Cunningham defiantly said, “Put me on all the T-shirts you want.” Copper happily obliged and dropped merchandise featuring her now-infamous icy staredown of Cunningham on her website a few days later.

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